Busker on the bus is an internet sensation

A musician from Kirkby has received a “mind-boggling” reaction after an impromptu busking session on a bus won him an army of new fans.

Warren Ireland became an overnight hit on the Internet when a video of him singing and playing his guitar for passengers on the trentbarton bus went viral. Now he has been overwhelmed by a host of requests to perform at gigs in Nottingham, and even Sheffield, as well as being asked to promote a well-known guitar-brand by a local music shop.

“I’m enjoying every minute of it,” said Warren (21), of Acorn View. “The phone-calls have been coming in thick and fast. It’s mind-boggling really.”

The video-clip of Warren bus-busking has so far received 350,000 hits. Trentbarton’s marketing officer Jordan Kemp said: “It’s incredible how his performance created all this interest. It came out of the blue, and it certainly struck a chord with our customers. We’re so pleased that Warren’s musical talents are now reaching a wider audience and we’ll be happy to help out in any way we can. Hopefully this will be the start of something big for a local lad.”

It was his version one evening of the Oasis hit ‘Wonderwall’ on the trentbarton Threes bus, which runs through Mansfield, Sutton, Kirkby and Hucknall, that launched Warren’s rise to unlikely stardom.

“It wasn’t something I planned, and I was grateful the driver (Lee Milne) didn’t ask me to get off,” he said. Lee also drove a special bus that trentbarton laid on for one of Warren’s first gigs after his busking hit, at the Costa coffee shop on Hucknall High Street.

Warren has now received so much interest that he is planning to form his own band.